9 days to cliff, 30 days to inauguration -- OBAMA TO BOEHNER: 'I get that for free' -- KERRY to be 'Mr. Secretary' -- Leibo goes to NFL game with Rubio, Alex - Diane Sawyer, Ted Cruz bday

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SEN. BOB CORKER (R-Tenn.), to Peter Cook on tomorrow’s Bloomberg TV “Capitol Gains”: “It's time for us to get specific and not create another fiscal cliff, which is really what's being proposed -- creating another fiscal cliff to deal with this fiscal cliff.”

PRESIDENT OBAMA, in the Brady Press Briefing Room before he left for Hawaii: “In the next few days, I've asked leaders of Congress to work towards a package that prevents a tax hike on middle-class Americans, protects unemployment insurance for 2 million Americans, and lays the groundwork for further work on both growth and deficit reduction. That's an achievable goal. That can get done in 10 days. … I want to wish every American a merry Christmas. And because we didn’t get this done, I will see you next week.”

PALACE INTRIGUE – “How 'Cliff' Talks Hit the Wall: Behind Scenes, Boehner Failed to Sell Republicans on Taxes, While Obama's Spending Plans Rankled,” by Patrick O’Connor and Peter Nicholas: “[A]ccording to notes taken by a participant, Mr. Boehner told the president, ‘I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?’ ‘You get nothing,’ the president said. ‘I get that for free.’ … Responded Mr. Boehner: ‘I've found in my life that everything I've ever wanted has come with price.’ … Brett Loper, the speaker's top policy aide, prodded White House officials to look for tax revenue elsewhere. In phone calls and meetings, he steered them to tax shelters and suggested limiting deductions for tax-exempt municipal bonds. … Loper said, ‘I'm asking you for help. Are you going to help me or not?’ …

“During one session in the Capitol with White House's legislative liaison Rob Nabors, Mr. Loper … asked, referring to a near-deal during last year's debt-ceiling fight: ‘Can you get back into the zone of where you were in July 2011?’ ‘No,’ Mr. Nabors replied. ‘We were probably overextended then, and there's no way we would do it now.’ Mr. Nabors said if they couldn't reach a deal, they should keep lines of communication alive. … Loper asked, ‘So, you're breaking up with us?’

“On Dec. 13, Mr. Boehner went to the White House at the president's request, joking he was going to the woodshed. The president told him he could choose one of two doors. The first represented a big deal. If Mr. Boehner chose it, the president said, the country and financial markets would cheer. Door No. 2 represented a spike in interest rates and a global recession. Mr. Boehner said he wanted a deal along the lines of what the two men had negotiated in the summer of 2011 in a fight over raising the debt ceiling. ‘You missed your opportunity on that,’ the president told him.”

--PLAYBOOK BACKSTORY, from someone familiar with the negotiations: “A few weeks ago, the WSJ asked the White House and the Speaker’s office to participate in a Newsweek-book-style project where they shared information about the talks on an embargoed basis to reporters who were taken off the daily story to avoid conflicts. The Speaker’s office agreed. Dan Pfeiffer and the White House refused to participate because they felt it had the potential to hamper the ability to get a deal in the short term, and was bad for the working relationship in the long term. After the Speaker’s Plan B blew up in his face on Thursday night, the WSJ decided to go ahead and publish the story, including private conversations between the leaders, … even though we don't yet have a deal, poisoning the water going forward.”

--JERRY SEIB, Washington Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, emails: “We set out to provide the most accurate account of the deficit deliberations possible, and reached out to all sides along the way. Nobody involved was surprised by the appearance of our story today.”

--PLAYBOOK TRUTH BOMB: Except for the few quotes above, the story is rehash – used news, as they say. We liked the “I get that for free” quote, but the Journal didn’t get the context. We checked, and Obama was referring to public concessions by Rep. Tom Cole and Senate Rs on the need to raise rates. So the White House didn’t have to trade anything for that.

TOP TALKER – WSJ A1, “Google Labors To Build A Phone … ran into difficulties … using a bendable screen,” by Amir Efrati: “Engineers at Motorola [acquired by Google in May] are hard at work on a sophisticated [Android] handset—known internally as the ‘X phone’— … [for release next year, an] effort to provide more potent competition for Apple … Motorola wanted … better color saturation and the ability to take panoramic shots … But some … features were found to drain battery life … Motorola also ran into difficulties when it looked into using a bendable screen and materials such as ceramics that would allow the company to make the X Phone more stress resistant, use more colors and mold into different shapes.”

--JOHN DICKERSON of Slate, “Two Debacles in 12 Hours: Why today was a very bad day to be Republican”: “The NRA’s top lobbyist, Wayne LaPierre … was characteristically defiant, calling for security officers to be stationed at every school. He spoke with an edge, his voice straining … The night before, a committed band of Republicans defeated House Speaker John Boehner. … These two events—a defiant NRA and an incompetent leadership—cannot be the face of confrontation the GOP wants to show the public on high-profile issues. Tea Party activists and gun owners are a key part of the party base. But these public acts are out of sync with the moment and completely at odds with party's need to widen its membership. …

“The message of both of these acts … is: We don’t care about the wider audience. … [I]t's not the message that its putative leaders want to send. Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, and Paul Ryan are all trying to send various messages of inclusion. … Holding more firmly to your views despite new circumstances can offer stability, but it also opens you up to looking remote, unconcerned, and out of touch. To those who might think you hail from another planet, it helps to speak to them in their language. That language requires a conversation, not an argument.” http://slate.me/VYeYkW

TOP STORY – Boston Globe banner, “Kerry tapped to lead State Department: Jockeying begins now to succeed 5-term senator,” by Bryan Bender and Glen Johnson: “President Obama nominated Massachusetts Senator John Forbes Kerry as the next secretary of state Friday, turning to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of his earliest political allies to guide American diplomacy in an ‘uncertain world’ during the next four years. The selection of the 69-year-old Kerry … was heralded across the political divide as a wise choice of a fully tested player on the international stage who can dive into some of the world’s most challenging problems … If Kerry is confirmed, … Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick would name a temporary replacement to fill his seat and a special election would be held later next year to complete his term, which is up in 2014.

“The nomination to replace Hillary Clinton is the capstone of a three-decade political career that began when Kerry, the son of a Foreign Service officer, returned from the Vietnam War a decorated veteran to become a leading voice of the antiwar movement. ‘In a sense, John’s entire life has prepared him for this role,’ Obama said during a joint appearance with Kerry, his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, and Vice President Joe Biden in the Roosevelt Room … [Obama] noted that it was Kerry who invited him, as an Illinois state senator, to address the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. That speech catapulted Obama to national prominence.”

--N.Y. Times A1, “Kerry, in Role of a Lifetime, Is Pick to Lead the State Dept.,” by Mark Landler: “Kerry has been a loyal supporter of the Obama administration, guiding an arms-reduction treaty with Russia to ratification in the Senate and playing diplomatic troubleshooter for the White House in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan. … In early 2008, Mr. Kerry endorsed [Obama] over Mrs. Clinton, and this fall he played the role of Mitt Romney in mock debates — sessions that by some accounts put the president’s teeth on edge. …

“Although Mr. Kerry is not a global celebrity like Mrs. Clinton, his background as a presidential nominee and his chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee have made him well known abroad, accustomed to meeting monarchs and presidents. In October 2009, he was viewed as instrumental in persuading President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan to accept the need for a runoff election. Mr. Kerry spent 20 hours over five days with Mr. Karzai.” http://nyti.ms/12wkLVg

--PRESIDENT OBAMA, in the Roosevelt Room: “As the son of a Foreign Service officer, he has a deep respect for the men and women of the State Department … John has played a central role in every major foreign policy debate for nearly 30 years. As we turn the page on a decade of war, he understands that we’ve got to harness all elements of American power and ensure that they’re working together -- diplomatic and development, economic and political, military and intelligence … John, I’m looking forward to working with you instead of debating you.”

--“Israeli PM hails Kerry nomination” – AFP/Jerusalem: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday welcomed the nomination of Senator John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as US secretary of state … I congratulate John Kerry on his nomination to the post of American secretary of state. Kerry, who has great experience, is a well-known defender of the security of Israel,’ he said in a statement issued by his office. … Netanyahu also said he greatly appreciated that six months ago, after his father died, Kerry visited him during the shiva.”

** A message from the American Hospital Association: Will Congress Jeopardize Patients' Access to Care? As it works to reduce the deficit, Congress should not cut funding to hospitals and hurt patient care. Oppose Hospital Cuts. Protect Patient Care. Visit www.aha.org/preparedtocare to learn more. **

2016 WATCH – Alex Conant gets two photo credit in NYT print edition -- SportsSaturday lead, “Football, And It’s Not Political: When Senator Marco Rubio attends a Miami Dolphins game, … [t]he subject is the N.F.L., period,” by Mark Leibovich in Miami Gardens, Fla.: “Rubio, the rookie Republican senator from Florida, is standing on the sideline at Sun Life Stadium 30 minutes before a Dolphins game against the New England Patriots in early December. … ‘You want to meet Coach [Don] Shula?’ Rubio asks me. I demur, fearful of looking directly at the Supreme Being without sunglasses. (I am also a Patriots fan.) ‘Well, I’m going to say hi to Coach Shula,’ Rubio says with hushed reverence. … As a child, Rubio wore braces on his legs to correct a knee problem; he hated the braces, so his father would call home from work claiming to be Coach Shula and saying that Marco needed to wear them if he ever wanted to play for the Dolphins. … Rubio, 41, is legitimate, a serious fan who not only can name the Dolphins’ long snapper (John Denny) but can also tell you that an N.F.L. long-snapper must get the ball to the holder in seven-tenths of a second. …

“[O]nly so much escape is possible for a politician in a packed football stadium, especially with a reporter along and, also, his two young sons, Dominick (5) and Anthony (7). Rubio coaches Anthony in youth football. We rode to the stadium from Rubio’s West Miami home in a rental car driven by the senator’s spokesman, Alex Conant. … [T]he former Florida Gator has not refrained at all from taunting Florida State fans via Twitter. ‘I was mocking them just last week,’ he says, boasting that one particular anti-F.S.U. posting — something about the fat lady singing — was ‘one of my most retweeted tweets ever.’ Rubio has an unusual familiarity with his own Twitter activity. After the Patriots signed the free-agent wide receiver Donte Stallworth on Dec. 4, Rubio mentioned to me that Stallworth followed him on Twitter. How did he know this? ‘Because he once retweeted something of mine,’ Rubio said. …

“Which is his least favorite N.F.L. team? ‘Jets,’ he says without hesitation. [Sorry, Rhoades!] ‘That’s the team I hate to lose to the most. They could be 1-15, and if they beat the Dolphins, their fans get obnoxious.’ … It is worth noting that the Jets’ owner, Woody Johnson, is a major Republican donor. (It’s also worth noting that I later receive an e-mail from Conant, the spokesman, emphasizing that the senator and Johnson ‘have a good relationship.’) … Conant … inches the rental car through the parking lot, fans zigzagging in front of him, not all of them sober. … Conant succeeds, heroically, and is on the highway a few minutes later with Dominick now fast asleep in the back.” See Alex’s pics. http://nyti.ms/UZz3HO

THE PRESIDENT ARRIVES IN HAWAII – Pool reports by NYT’s Jeremy Peters: “Potus arrived at Andrews via Marine One at promptly 7:30 p.m. local time. He, the first lady and their two daughters didn't linger long before boarding Air Force One, with the official temperature on your pooler's iPhone reading 39 degrees. Traveling with the president were Alyssa Mastromonaco, acting chief of staff, and Jay Carney, press secretary, and Bo the dog. We were taxiing on the runway at 7:35. …

“Honolulu Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam … Potus was wheels down in Honolulu at 12:06 a.m. local time, following a bumpy but very quiet 10-hour flight. No gaggling. … Potus quickly deplaned, having shed the leather jacket he was sporting in Washington for more climate-appropriate attire: a dress shirt, sleeves rolled up. At 12:26 a.m. we were on the move toward the vacation residence. … 12:54 a.m. Potus arrived at his vacation residence in Kailua, a quiet town on a crescent stretch of beach on the east end of Oahu. The bus carrying the press was not able to get close enough to the property to see it, or to see the Obamas. A light drizzle fell as the motorcade traveled around the eastern edge of Pearl Harbor, then up and over the mountains to Kailua. … We have a lid.”

--THE V.P.’S WEEKEND: “The Vice President will be in Wilmington, Delaware. There are no public events scheduled.”

BUSINESS BURST – “Wal-Mart Turns to Condé Nast for Beauty Magazine,” by Women’s Wear Daily’s Erik Maza: “Buried within Wal-Mart’s Web site … is a magazine called BeautyScoop. Thousands of stores also carry it, and it was mailed to millions of the store’s customers. … It has a model on the cover … Its own logo — the name in a large type underneath a smaller Wal-Mart tag. Though wafer-thin — it runs just 12 pages — and produced on glossy stock, it is as close as a store catalogue can come to a magazine. And there are editorial features. … Glamour, for instance, answered questions from its Twitter followers about ‘pretty girl problems,’ like thinning eyebrows. … The entire magazine was made by Condé, sources said. … This marriage of convenience takes the old-hat practice of custom publishing to a whole other, and more lucrative, level and advances publishers’ attempts at selling their marketing savvy. … The collaboration is secret. …

“Custom publishing is not a new bag. … Time Inc. … publishes My Ford magazine. … [P]ublishers have also increasingly moved to offer big-scale marketers the creative services they would normally get from ad agencies. … The initial [Wal-Mart] plan called for five issues … with 500,000 copies in-store, and direct-mail run sent to 2.5 million Wal-Mart customers … The cost of the project is in the millions … The final product was made to Wal-Mart’s orders — nothing too ostentatious, none of Glamour’s sometimes suggestive headlines. More importantly, while it would borrow the aesthetic of Condé magazines — flashy typeface and attractive models — as well as light editorial features, like beauty advice and Q&As, the name Condé Nast appears nowhere … Though the fate of the magazine in 2013 is unclear, sources say the two companies are already working on another joint project.” http://wwd.us/TKdxI8

--“Australian DJs could face prosecution for royal hoax,” by AFP’s Danny Kemp in London: “British prosecutors will decide whether to charge two Australian DJs after a nurse who took a hoax call to a hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife Catherine apparently killed herself, police said Saturday. Scotland Yard said officers had this week sent a file to the Crown Prosecution Service over the prank earlier this month by presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian, from Sydney's 2Day FM radio station. Indian-born nurse Jacintha Saldanha, 46, was found hanged in her lodgings at King Edward VII's hospital in central London, where Kate was being treated for acute morning sickness.”

MILESTONE BIRTHDAY: Reid Phillip “Reido” Kellam, a junior at Penn State double-majoring in P.R./advertising and political science, rang in 21 with a beer at Martin's. His first, no doubt. Reid once summered at the Glover Park Group. (hat tip: Mom, Susan Kellam, and Dad, Dick Keil of Purple Strategies, plus Edgar, the pug)

--SiriusXM's “Polioptics” with Josh King and Adam Belmar (SUN noon ET / 6 pm ET): Historian Michael Beschloss and Mark Updegrove, executive director of the LBJ Presidential Library, on a $10 million renovation. On SiriusXM's POTUS Ch. 124; also available for download on iTunes and at http://www.polioptics.com.

** A message from the American Hospital Association: Will Congress Jeopardize Patients' Access to Care? America's hospitals are always open, serving our communities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Even as hospitals face new challenges to provide high-quality care to everyone who needs it, Congress is debating additional cuts to hospital funding which would cost jobs and hurt access to care. Because hospitals care for everyone who comes to the ER, we provide billions in uncompensated care, including $39.3 billion in 2010. During the last decade, uncompensated care rose 82%. Now Congress could further cut hospital funding to reduce the deficit. These cuts will have serious implications for our patients, and could jeopardize access to quality health care. Oppose Hospital Cuts. Protect Patient Care.

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Send to a friend9 days to cliff, 30 days to inauguration -- OBAMA TO BOEHNER: 'I get that for free' -- KERRY to be 'Mr. Secretary' -- Leibo goes to NFL game with Rubio, Alex - Diane Sawyer, Ted Cruz bday